This chapter examines the extent to which the idea of a right is dependent on the notion of a boundary. For the concept of a right to be coherent, clear boundaries have to be drawn between different ...
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This chapter examines the extent to which the idea of a right is dependent on the notion of a boundary. For the concept of a right to be coherent, clear boundaries have to be drawn between different rights bearers. Demarcations also have to be made between the objects of rights, that is, the ‘things’ that rights bearers are entitled to. Such considerations lead us to ask whether language can or should be treated as a bounded entity, as would be the case with the concept of language rights.Less

On Boundary Marking

Lionel Wee

Published in print: 2010-11-24

This chapter examines the extent to which the idea of a right is dependent on the notion of a boundary. For the concept of a right to be coherent, clear boundaries have to be drawn between different rights bearers. Demarcations also have to be made between the objects of rights, that is, the ‘things’ that rights bearers are entitled to. Such considerations lead us to ask whether language can or should be treated as a bounded entity, as would be the case with the concept of language rights.

The fourth chapter examines examples of linguistic discrimination that extend beyond ethnic minority languages. It discusses cases of intralanguage discrimination as well as language use in ...
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The fourth chapter examines examples of linguistic discrimination that extend beyond ethnic minority languages. It discusses cases of intralanguage discrimination as well as language use in educational and workplace settings, and shows that such cases are not easily handled via an appeal to language rights. The chapter concludes by discussing the circumstances under which language rights might be useful, arguing that the usefulness of the notion of language rights lies mainly in helping to raise awareness of the problems of discrimination faced by a specific ethnic minority group. But there are significant costs involved, since the different problems and experiences of individual group members are not taken into consideration.Less

Beyond Ethnic Minorities

Lionel Wee

Published in print: 2010-11-24

The fourth chapter examines examples of linguistic discrimination that extend beyond ethnic minority languages. It discusses cases of intralanguage discrimination as well as language use in educational and workplace settings, and shows that such cases are not easily handled via an appeal to language rights. The chapter concludes by discussing the circumstances under which language rights might be useful, arguing that the usefulness of the notion of language rights lies mainly in helping to raise awareness of the problems of discrimination faced by a specific ethnic minority group. But there are significant costs involved, since the different problems and experiences of individual group members are not taken into consideration.

The origins of erotic love can be traced back to the essential union of infant and mother. This chapter follows love’s evolution, meandering through sensuous detours to discover the beloved’s ...
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The origins of erotic love can be traced back to the essential union of infant and mother. This chapter follows love’s evolution, meandering through sensuous detours to discover the beloved’s unfolding and often unexpected forms, the diversity betraying some basic unity or at least continuity in multiplicity. Psychoanalysts note the similarities in the infinite variety of vital pleasures with terms such as the ‘the primary object’, ‘libido’, and the ‘interdependence of representations of self and other’. Although these unifying drives, objects, and images have been with us all our lives, we continue to uncover or discover their power again and again, continually taking us by surprise. For the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov, life is love that haunts our sensibilities from cradle to grave. Nabokov has given us a narrative and a body of words which make the ontogeny of love come to brilliant life. This chapter deals with the ontogeny of love, sexual passion, Oedipus complex, and incest, focusing on Nabokov's works Lolita, Speak Memory, and Ada.Less

The Ontogeny of Love

Sudhir KakarJohn Munder Ross

Published in print: 2011-11-10

The origins of erotic love can be traced back to the essential union of infant and mother. This chapter follows love’s evolution, meandering through sensuous detours to discover the beloved’s unfolding and often unexpected forms, the diversity betraying some basic unity or at least continuity in multiplicity. Psychoanalysts note the similarities in the infinite variety of vital pleasures with terms such as the ‘the primary object’, ‘libido’, and the ‘interdependence of representations of self and other’. Although these unifying drives, objects, and images have been with us all our lives, we continue to uncover or discover their power again and again, continually taking us by surprise. For the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov, life is love that haunts our sensibilities from cradle to grave. Nabokov has given us a narrative and a body of words which make the ontogeny of love come to brilliant life. This chapter deals with the ontogeny of love, sexual passion, Oedipus complex, and incest, focusing on Nabokov's works Lolita, Speak Memory, and Ada.

In this chapter, the author talks about his unique association with Vladimir Nabokov. He recalls reading the Nabokov novel Lolita for the first time and how it has mystified him. He also read Pale ...
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In this chapter, the author talks about his unique association with Vladimir Nabokov. He recalls reading the Nabokov novel Lolita for the first time and how it has mystified him. He also read Pale Fire, Ada, and the autobiography Speak, Memory. By the time he was seventeen and writing on Pale Fire the author says he was already growing a patchy beard. Twenty-five years later, he decided to shave it off and was surprised to see in the mirror what seemed to be his father's face looking back in surprise at the resemblance. John Shade in the poem “Pale Fire” writes about the inspiration that comes to him as he shaves, and as the author now shaves each morning, that passage from canto 4 will be more likely than not to spring to his mind. That's how close his Nabokov can be.Less

Who Is “My Nabokov”?

Brain Boyd

Published in print: 2013-06-25

In this chapter, the author talks about his unique association with Vladimir Nabokov. He recalls reading the Nabokov novel Lolita for the first time and how it has mystified him. He also read Pale Fire, Ada, and the autobiography Speak, Memory. By the time he was seventeen and writing on Pale Fire the author says he was already growing a patchy beard. Twenty-five years later, he decided to shave it off and was surprised to see in the mirror what seemed to be his father's face looking back in surprise at the resemblance. John Shade in the poem “Pale Fire” writes about the inspiration that comes to him as he shaves, and as the author now shaves each morning, that passage from canto 4 will be more likely than not to spring to his mind. That's how close his Nabokov can be.

This chapter examines the ways in which Flo Kennedy brought her legal expertise and political knowledge to the campaign to repeal New York State’s restrictive abortion laws. She served as counsel for ...
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This chapter examines the ways in which Flo Kennedy brought her legal expertise and political knowledge to the campaign to repeal New York State’s restrictive abortion laws. She served as counsel for Abramowicz v. Lefkowitz, the first class-action suit in which women themselves insisted on their right to be heard. Coupling speak-outs and demonstrations with constitutional arguments, the case helped to convince the legislature to amend the law before it was settled in court. The tactics from this case would be used in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 federal case that legalized abortion nationally. Although by the late 1960s she was one of the country’s best-known black feminists, her role in helping to legalize abortion has long since been forgotten.Less

Not to Rely Completely on the Courts : Black Feminist Leadership in the Reproductive Rights Battles, 1969–1971

Sherie M. Randolph

Published in print: 2015-10-05

This chapter examines the ways in which Flo Kennedy brought her legal expertise and political knowledge to the campaign to repeal New York State’s restrictive abortion laws. She served as counsel for Abramowicz v. Lefkowitz, the first class-action suit in which women themselves insisted on their right to be heard. Coupling speak-outs and demonstrations with constitutional arguments, the case helped to convince the legislature to amend the law before it was settled in court. The tactics from this case would be used in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 federal case that legalized abortion nationally. Although by the late 1960s she was one of the country’s best-known black feminists, her role in helping to legalize abortion has long since been forgotten.

This chapter offers an ethnographic account of an emerging feminist performance movement called Yoni Ki Baat (Our Vaginas Speak). Across the Unites States, a growing number of South Asian American ...
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This chapter offers an ethnographic account of an emerging feminist performance movement called Yoni Ki Baat (Our Vaginas Speak). Across the Unites States, a growing number of South Asian American women have found more progressive and politically resistive ways to engage with South Asian cultural traditions. By playing critically with folk dress, narratives, songs, poetic forms, dance, and material culture, these women engage in debates about sexuality and gender in their communities. Put simply, Yoni Ki Baat can be characterized as a South Asian American version of The Vagina Monologues, wherein the performances serve as an opportunity for young women to embed personal testimonies within traditional cultural forms as a way to address controversial issues connected to ethnic essentialism, sex positivity, and sexual violence, to name a few.Less

Cultural Activism and Sexuality in Feminist Performance

Christine L. Garlough

Published in print: 2013-02-19

This chapter offers an ethnographic account of an emerging feminist performance movement called Yoni Ki Baat (Our Vaginas Speak). Across the Unites States, a growing number of South Asian American women have found more progressive and politically resistive ways to engage with South Asian cultural traditions. By playing critically with folk dress, narratives, songs, poetic forms, dance, and material culture, these women engage in debates about sexuality and gender in their communities. Put simply, Yoni Ki Baat can be characterized as a South Asian American version of The Vagina Monologues, wherein the performances serve as an opportunity for young women to embed personal testimonies within traditional cultural forms as a way to address controversial issues connected to ethnic essentialism, sex positivity, and sexual violence, to name a few.

This chapter is the author's keynote delivered in 2000 for a small conference on Vladimir Nabokov's metaphysics at the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The author reflects on the novelty and ...
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This chapter is the author's keynote delivered in 2000 for a small conference on Vladimir Nabokov's metaphysics at the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The author reflects on the novelty and excitement of discovering Nabokov's metaphysics; the suspicion that it could become a routine key to the work of someone who always hated the routine; and the questions that he felt needed to be asked both within Nabokov's framework and outside it. The author wrote his M.A. thesis between November 1973 and January 1974 at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, on what were then Nabokov's last three novels, Pale Fire, Ada, and Transparent Things. He sent his thesis to Nabokov, and received it back in 1974. This time he focused on Ada, annotating it line by line but also examining it in the context of Nabokov's work and thought. He argues that Nabokov's own image in Speak, Memory and elsewhere of a kind of Hegelian spiral of being provides the basic framework of Nabokov's metaphysics.Less

Retrospects and Prospects

Brain Boyd

Published in print: 2013-06-25

This chapter is the author's keynote delivered in 2000 for a small conference on Vladimir Nabokov's metaphysics at the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The author reflects on the novelty and excitement of discovering Nabokov's metaphysics; the suspicion that it could become a routine key to the work of someone who always hated the routine; and the questions that he felt needed to be asked both within Nabokov's framework and outside it. The author wrote his M.A. thesis between November 1973 and January 1974 at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, on what were then Nabokov's last three novels, Pale Fire, Ada, and Transparent Things. He sent his thesis to Nabokov, and received it back in 1974. This time he focused on Ada, annotating it line by line but also examining it in the context of Nabokov's work and thought. He argues that Nabokov's own image in Speak, Memory and elsewhere of a kind of Hegelian spiral of being provides the basic framework of Nabokov's metaphysics.

This chapter offers a reading of Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography, Speak, Memory, in order to elucidate the artful shaping of his life and shed new light on his mind and art. Nabokov made his own ...
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This chapter offers a reading of Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography, Speak, Memory, in order to elucidate the artful shaping of his life and shed new light on his mind and art. Nabokov made his own autobiography more a work of art than any other autobiography has ever been, and he left out almost all his adult life. One problem for a biographer of someone who has written such a superlative autobiography as Speak, Memory is to situate one's own effort in relation to the author's “official” version of his life. In the biography Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years, the author tried two different solutions to the problem: interpret Speak, Memory as a work of art and ferret out the things that Nabokov would not want us to see. The author takes as his example the death of Nabokov's father in Speak, Memory and in real life. He also examines how Nabokov transformed the raw facts of his life into the art of Speak, Memory.Less

Speak, Memory: The Life and the Art

Brain Boyd

Published in print: 2013-06-25

This chapter offers a reading of Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography, Speak, Memory, in order to elucidate the artful shaping of his life and shed new light on his mind and art. Nabokov made his own autobiography more a work of art than any other autobiography has ever been, and he left out almost all his adult life. One problem for a biographer of someone who has written such a superlative autobiography as Speak, Memory is to situate one's own effort in relation to the author's “official” version of his life. In the biography Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years, the author tried two different solutions to the problem: interpret Speak, Memory as a work of art and ferret out the things that Nabokov would not want us to see. The author takes as his example the death of Nabokov's father in Speak, Memory and in real life. He also examines how Nabokov transformed the raw facts of his life into the art of Speak, Memory.

This chapter explores the theme of love as it relates to girls and women in Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography, Speak, Memory—with special reference to his own mother. In April 1947, Nabokov confided ...
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This chapter explores the theme of love as it relates to girls and women in Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography, Speak, Memory—with special reference to his own mother. In April 1947, Nabokov confided to his friend Edmund Wilson that he was writing a short novel about a man who liked little girls, to be called The Kingdom by the Sea because Humbert sees Lolita, the first time he meets her, as a reincarnation of the girl he loved at thirteen. This chapter examines two of the chapters in Speak, Memory: “First Love,” which prefigures and clearly inspires Lolita, and “Portrait of My Mother,” which reveals Nabokov's reflections about human life as a complex interplay of anticipation and recollection, loss and restoration, incident and repetition, our previsions of future loss and our foreglimpses of later retrospection.Less

Speak Memory: Nabokov, Mother, and Lovers : The Weave of the Magic Carpet

Brain Boyd

Published in print: 2013-06-25

This chapter explores the theme of love as it relates to girls and women in Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography, Speak, Memory—with special reference to his own mother. In April 1947, Nabokov confided to his friend Edmund Wilson that he was writing a short novel about a man who liked little girls, to be called The Kingdom by the Sea because Humbert sees Lolita, the first time he meets her, as a reincarnation of the girl he loved at thirteen. This chapter examines two of the chapters in Speak, Memory: “First Love,” which prefigures and clearly inspires Lolita, and “Portrait of My Mother,” which reveals Nabokov's reflections about human life as a complex interplay of anticipation and recollection, loss and restoration, incident and repetition, our previsions of future loss and our foreglimpses of later retrospection.

This chapter describes how advance care planning (ACP) is being implemented in Canada. It highlights the use of an organizing National Framework for Advance Care Planning and a recent conceptual ...
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This chapter describes how advance care planning (ACP) is being implemented in Canada. It highlights the use of an organizing National Framework for Advance Care Planning and a recent conceptual framework of end-of-life communication and decision making. A feature of the Canadian landscape are networks of collaboration and partnerships including research and non-governmental organizations, and examples of regional and national initiatives are presented in the boxes. A summary is provided of barriers, facilitators, the cultural milieu, and future opportunities for ACP in Canada. Implementation of ACP in Canada has followed a multi-faceted approach, with significant national leadership, key stakeholder participation and consumer engagement strategies, with important outcomes demonstrated.Less

Advance care planning in Canada

Doris BarwichJohn YouJessica SimonLouise HanveyCari Hoffman

Published in print: 2017-11-30

This chapter describes how advance care planning (ACP) is being implemented in Canada. It highlights the use of an organizing National Framework for Advance Care Planning and a recent conceptual framework of end-of-life communication and decision making. A feature of the Canadian landscape are networks of collaboration and partnerships including research and non-governmental organizations, and examples of regional and national initiatives are presented in the boxes. A summary is provided of barriers, facilitators, the cultural milieu, and future opportunities for ACP in Canada. Implementation of ACP in Canada has followed a multi-faceted approach, with significant national leadership, key stakeholder participation and consumer engagement strategies, with important outcomes demonstrated.

This chapter presents a critical argument against Daniel Speak's article “The Impertinence of Frankfurt-Style Argument.” It describes how Speak's critiques rest on an “all-or-nothing” attitude. He ...
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This chapter presents a critical argument against Daniel Speak's article “The Impertinence of Frankfurt-Style Argument.” It describes how Speak's critiques rest on an “all-or-nothing” attitude. He assumes that the proponent of Frankfurt-style compatibilism simply considers the examples and impulsively concludes that causal determinism is clearly and indisputably compatible with moral responsibility. Speak also argues that even if Harry Frankfurt's examples impugn Principle of Alternative Possibilities, they cannot be used to defend compatibilism about causal determinism and moral responsibility. The chapter provides the reason why Speak comes to this conclusion, and defends the importance of Frankfurt-style example.Less

The Importance of Frankfurt-Style Argument

John Martin Fischer

Published in print: 2012-01-12

This chapter presents a critical argument against Daniel Speak's article “The Impertinence of Frankfurt-Style Argument.” It describes how Speak's critiques rest on an “all-or-nothing” attitude. He assumes that the proponent of Frankfurt-style compatibilism simply considers the examples and impulsively concludes that causal determinism is clearly and indisputably compatible with moral responsibility. Speak also argues that even if Harry Frankfurt's examples impugn Principle of Alternative Possibilities, they cannot be used to defend compatibilism about causal determinism and moral responsibility. The chapter provides the reason why Speak comes to this conclusion, and defends the importance of Frankfurt-style example.